Pedal

A kind friend gave me her old bicycle and I am sorry to say that it has sat unridden for two months.

But last night I needed cornmeal from the grocery store, which is pretty close to where I live, and when I went out to my car I just didn’t feel like driving it.

So I looked at the bike. Adjusted the seat. Hopped on. Flat tires, but there is a gas station near the supermarket. As I rode along I remembered how it felt to have everything outside of me be more accessible. No barrier between me, the sky and weather, the sounds of movement along the road.

It was nice. Especially after the tires were pumped up. Wheeeee!

So, even though I generally have a mixture of love/hate feelings towards cycling (it takes longer, requires effort, and is kinda scary on many roads), as the weather cools down I am determined that I am going to ride that bicycle more than I drive. How lucky that both of the places I work are well within biking distance. How silly that I’ve been spending money on gas and polluting the air and wearing down further an already-old car, when I could have been bicycling all summer and making both myself and the environment healthier. My somewhat legitimate excuse is that the intense heat would really have made the trips back and forth miserable, and possibly even not good for a girl who’d been working in the hot sun all day.

Other goals, along with this one? (a) Get up early and walk the dog every day. In order to make this, and the biking to work, happen without a great deal of crotchety-ness, (b) go to bed by 9 p.m. at the latest most nights.

Whoa.

For a grad-school-trained night owl, that’s a lot to ask. But it can be done! It will hopefully lead to more productivity, improved health and happiness, and stories and photos drawn from a slower and more engaged perspective.